Brett Mason (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Education) Share this | Hansard source

It is obviously a time for miracles. This is a faith based budget. Mr Rudd and the Labor government are asking the Australian people to take Labor’s budget forecasts and their promises on faith or, as the Australian newspaper said, ‘on a wing and a prayer’. There are two conditions that have to be fulfilled for the government to repay its debt. The first of those is for growth to be back at 4½ per cent per annum in two years time. That is the underlying assumption the government is making about the repayment of debt.

We are coming out of an apocalypse—that is the word that Mr Rudd and Mr Swan use—the worst recession since the Great Depression, and the Labor Party say that, within 24 months, growth will be back at 4½ per cent, the average rate for the two best decades of the last 110 years of this Federation. For a start, the Labor Party cannot do that. Their record of economic management is absolutely appalling. It always has been, and I will get to that in a minute. What makes it perhaps even more appalling is that the repayment of debt relies not on cuts to government expenditure but on continuous economic growth of 4½ per cent. If the prediction of 4½ per cent is right then so much for the apocalypse—this recession would be shorter than the recession of the 1990s. So much for the apocalypse.

I am a generous person but, even if we believed the government’s underlying assumption of 4½ per cent growth—which we do not—I cannot believe that the government will limit future growth in spending to two per cent per annum. Who in this country believes that the Australian Labor Party, the federal government, will limit future growth in expenditure to two per cent per annum? No-one believes that. What about all the juicy things offered before a federal election? The Labor government is not going to do it? No-one believes that. No-one believes the assumption about 4½ per cent growth but, because I am a generous guy, let us give them the benefit of the doubt. The idea that this lot will spend no more than two per cent per annum over the next half a dozen years is impossible. Can you imagine a Labor government not increasing expenditure by more than two per cent? It has never happened on that side in our nation’s history—not once in 110 years—but they say they are going to do it now. They say it is going to happen.

With the entire budget and the budget deficit being based upon certain economic forecasts, the best thing you can do is look at what the Labor Party has done in the past. The best indicator of future performance is past performance. You will know about Labor’s DNA when you look at what they did in the past. The best predictor of future behaviour is past behaviour. Let me put it very simply: every federal Labor government, upon leaving office, has left this country further in debt. Let me say that again slowly: every federal Labor government, upon leaving office, has left this nation further in debt. That is the little surprise package for an incoming coalition government and for the Australian people—more debt.

Our Federation is 108 years old. In that 108 years, every time this lot have been in government they have left us further in debt. They never pay back the expenditures they make, and there are no exceptions. They started off with poor old Chris Watson, who barely got a go. The first big spender was Andrew Fisher. You know the way the Labor Party love to do things. Andrew Fisher kicked off the spending jaunt and they have never looked back. Then we had Billy Hughes. He might have been a Labor rat but he had the Labor DNA. He knew how to spend, just like all the others. James Scullin never paid back debt. John Curtin and Ben Chifley never paid back debt. What about Gough Whitlam? We all know about Gough Whitlam. Did he pay back the debt he raised? No, he never did pay it back. To be fair, Hawke and Keating did not start off so badly. What did they leave the country? What was the government debt? It was $96 billion. It is consistent, isn’t it, from Chris Watson right through to Paul Keating. I will say it again: every Labor government, upon leaving office, leaves this country further in debt, and there are no exceptions. That is why we do not trust them. The government forecasts are wrong on growth and wrong on expenditure. Who believes that this lot will limit their expenditure to two per cent more per year? No-one.

There are some people who believed that things might change with Mr Rudd. He had some experience in the diplomatic corps and in the financial sector. Some people thought he might be different from the previous nine Labor prime ministers and would not rack up debt. How wrong we were. Mr Rudd has racked up $124 billion worth of debt in 18 months. That does not include the $43 billion for the National Broadband Network or the $26 billion for the Ruddbank that has already been racked up. Every Labor government adds to debt. In good times, in bad times, in peace and in war, this lot will spend your money and they will not pay it back. Do you know what they will do? They want your children or your grandchildren to pay back the debt. They do not mind giving out welfare and hand-outs, so long as you do not have to pay it back. They want the next generation, or the generation after that, to pay it back. So much for intergenerational equity. This is a party that consistently talks about equity. What about what is fair to the next generation? Of course, governments occasionally need to spend in a recession to act as a stimulus. All of us agree with that. The problem with the Labor Party is that they do it every single time—in good times and in bad times, in peace and in war. There is never an exception. They spend more than they raise. That is a fact.